Alcoa Shares Rally on Q2 Financial Results

Shares of aluminum producer Alcoa were soaring on Wednesday after the company posted a narrower second quarter loss with sales being ahead of expectations.

Shares were up 9% in the extended session as Wall Street absorbed the results.

For the second quarter, the company said it lost $197 million, or $1.06 a share. This is compared with a loss of $402 million, or $2.17 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, the company lost $4 million, or 1 cent a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of 2 cents a share a year ago.

Sales fell to $2.15 billion from $2.71 billion a year ago while analysts polled by FactSet had expected an adjusted loss of 38 cents a share on sales of $2.11 billion.

“I am proud of our global team’s resolve in facing challenges created by the pandemic, focusing first on protecting people,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Roy Harvey. “We acted early to implement comprehensive measures to mitigate health risks, and we continue to exercise all precautionary measures to keep people safe and our locations fully operational.

“Despite challenging market conditions, our team has lowered production costs, increased output, maintained stable shipments, and improved our balance sheet. We continued to make progress in executing our strategic actions and 2020 programs, and we finished the quarter with a cash balance of nearly one billion dollars,” Harvey added.

“Earlier this month, we issued corporate bonds at a favorable rate which provides us with improved flexibility as we continue to navigate through the current economic uncertainties,” Harvey said. “As we move forward and the economy recovers, we will also be well positioned to complete objectives within our capital allocation framework.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Alcoa Corp (NYSE: AA) and have not been compensated for this article.